ZENiFUL Coaching
peace | insight | fulfillment
Hi, I'm Mary
For much of my life, I was very good at caring for the people around me.
What took me much longer to learn was how to include myself in the life I was creating. I learned early to be responsible, dependable and helpful. Caring for others became a natural part of who I was - in my family, relationships and professional life. Those qualities brought meaning and connection to my life.
But somewhere along the way, I became so accustomed to attending to the needs of others that I wasn't always listening to my own. It took a few wake-up calls to recognize the difference and that initiated a journey that continues to shape how I live, learn and walk beside others today.
Life Has Been My Classroom
Growing up as one of the older granddaughter in a large close-knit extended family, I often found myself caring for, supporting and looking after others.
Over time, these qualities became part of my identity. I was someone people could depend on - in my family, my relationships and my professional life. I developed a deep capacity for caring, connecting with people and taking responsibility.
But I also began to associate being needed with being valued. Without realizing it, I became more familiar with what others needed than with what I wanted for myself.
It would take many more life experiences before I began to recognize that distinction.
What once helped me find my place in the world
was also shaping how I lived within it.
When Life Asked Me to Pay Attention
MY Life brought me experiences I hadn't anticipated - unexpected loss, personal regrets and disappointments, difficult transitions, caring for love ones and times when my body required me to slow down.
Looking back, I can see how these experiences were inviting me to pay attention. But I didn't always recognize their significance at the time.
Often, my response was to take more responsibility, care more for others and keep going.
From the outside, I had a full life. Yet inside, I felt exhausted and disconnected from myself.
Questions Began to Emerge
Why do I feel responsible for everyone else's wellbeing?
Why does choosing myself feel uncomfortable?
Where am I
in the life
I am creating?
Why is it easier to recognize other's needs than
my own?
What do I need?
I had built a life around the people I loved,
but I wasn't always including myself in it.
That realization didn't change everything overnight.
But it invited me to begin seeing myself and my life differently.
From Understanding to Embodying
My curiosity about myself and life led me to explore consciousness, human development, subconscious beliefs, family systems and archetypes.
Over the past decade, I've learned from many teachers and approaches, including PSYCH-K®, Systemic Constellation work and Sacred Contracts. Each offered a different perspective on how our experiences shape what we believe, how we relate to others and the choices we make.
But understanding something intellectually and living it are not always the same. I began bringing what I learned into my everyday life - noticing my reactions, questioning familiar beliefs, becoming more aware of my patterns and listening more closely to myself.
Through reflection, meditation and conscious practice, I continue to explore how to meet life's experiences with greater awareness, compassion and choice.
Life was not separate from my learning.
Life was where I practised it.
And it still is.
Learning to Include Myself
Others & Myself
I don't have to choose between caring for others and caring for myself.
There is room for both.
As I began seeing myself and my patterns more clearly, I discovered that caring for myself didn't mean I had to stop caring for others.
I could love deeply without feeling responsible for everything. I could support someone without needing to fix their problems. I could listen without immediately stepping in to help.
I also began asking myself questions I hadn't always made room for... What do I need? What do I want? What brings me joy? How do I want to experience my life?
Gradually, I began making more conscious choices: listening to my body, honouring my energy, allowing myself to rest, creating time for the people and experiences I love, and making space for laughter, connection and play.
I'm still learning. Sometimes old patterns return, and I have another opportunity to notice, pause and choose differently.
Walking Beside Rather Than Carrying
For much of my life, caring for others often meant stepping in, taking responsibility and trying to make things better.
As I learned to include myself, I also began discovering another way of being with the people I love.
I could listen without needing to fix. Support without taking over. Care deeply without carrying what wasn't mine to carry. That understanding has become central to how I work with others.
Today, I see my role as a guide - someone who listens, asks thoughtful questions and creates a grounded space for people to explore themselves and their lives.
My role isn't to walk your path for you.
It's to walk beside you as you discover your own.
The Life I'm Living Now
For a long time, I thought personal growth meant becoming a different or better version of myself.
Today, I'm discovering that becoming may be less about changing who I am and more about remembering and making room for who I've always been.
I'm learning to create a life that includes not only the people I love, but also the experiences that bring me joy with meaningful connections, time in nature, laughter, play, quiet moments and the freedom to follow what matters to me.
I'm learning to honour my own rhythm, to listen to my body, to rest without needing to earn it and to trust that I can care deeply without carrying everything.
I don't have everything figured out. Life continues to bring new experiences, questions and opportunities to see and choose differently. And perhaps that's what I love most about this journey.
I'm not trying to arrive at a finished version of myself.
I'm learning to live more fully as myself.
Love. Light. Laughter.
These are the qualities I want to experience, nurture and share - not only with others, but within my own life. And that is the heart of ZENiFUL LIFE ... a journey I've been exploring, developing and learning to live for more than a decade.
My Training & Experience
I bring together what I've studied, what I've lived and what I continue to practise.
For me, learning is not separate from life.
It is something I continue to explore and embody through my own experiences and the privilege of walking beside others.
Professional Training & Certifications
Studies & Development
Family & Systemic Constellations Facilitator
• International Family Constellation Training Institute
• Advanced Training
PSYCH-K® Facilitator
• PSYCH-K® Centre International
• Basic • Advanced • Master • Health & Wellbeing
Certified Professional Co-Active Coach - CPCC
•The Coaches Training Institute
Certified Emotion Code Practitioner
• Discover Healing
Positive Psychology Certificate
• The Flourishing Center
Developmental Psychology Certificates
• Neufeld Institute - Intensives Level I, II, III
• Science of Emotion • Counterwill • Aggression
Sacred Contracts & Archetypal Studies
• CMED Institute (Caroline Myss)
• Chart of Origin • 3 Wheel Transformation
• Fate to Destiny - ongoing certification
Influential Teachers & Perspectives
• Gabor Maté - Compassionate Inquiry
• Byron Katie - The Work (Self Inquiry)
• David R Hawkins - Map of Consciousness
• John Bradshaw - Homecoming Series
• James Hollis - Swamplands of the Soul
Lived • Learned • Practised
Perhaps something here speaks to you?
You don't need to have everything figured out before reaching out.
Whatever brings you here, we can begin with what's present.
I'd be delighted to connect and explore what feels meaningful to you.
Seeing • Choosing • Becoming
Learning to live more fully as ourselves.